Slide 1 - Ysgol Rhyngrwyd IGCSE Geography

Unit 2B Development
Declining Economic
Prosperity (MEDC)
We have discussed …
• … the different levels of development of various
countries – an eg of a MEDC? LEDC? LLEDC?
• … how different areas within countries may
develop at different rates – e.g. of variation
within a country? e.g. of variation within a city?
• … how some countries have developed as
industrial nations very rapidly and so have
increased their level of development – e.g. NIC?
• And now we are going at how some areas within
MEDCs may have declining economic prosperity
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Can you think of any reasons why
this might be?
• Why might an area’s GDP per capita go
down?
• Why might its standard of living go down?
• Why might it’s quality of life go down?
3
We are going to look at the South
Wales Coalfields
• But first, there may be lessons to be
drawn from what happens to the inner-
cities that may help explain what has
happened in South Wales, so …
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What were inner cities like?
• Inner city areas were once thriving communities
with a mixture of land-use and rich living
alongside poor.
• There were shops & houses, services, community
spirit & little crime.
• However there were high levels of pollution –
land, air & water.
• Poor sanitation led to a high death rate.
• So not a bad place to be so long as you would
put up with pollution and poor health
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But then they began to decay
Decline of inner
city factories
New industries
go elsewhere The rich
move out
Cycle of
More decline Deprivation
Crime moves in Empty buildings
Local authorities Poorest left behind
do not invest Social problems
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The South Wales Coalfields
A history of decline
South Wales in 1860
• Coal had been mined on a small scale in south
Wales for centuries, but the area was still mainly
rural until the start of the Industrial Revolution
in the late 1700s.
• South Wales had three very important raw
materials that could be used to make iron.
• Firstly it had iron ore (a rock containing iron),
secondly it had coal that was used to heat the
iron ore and make it molten so that the iron was
separated from the rest of the rock. Finally, it
had limestone that was used in iron making to
speed up the whole process.
• These three important raw materials were found
close to each other. This was a tremendous
advantage given the high cost of transporting
heavy rocks. 8
• At first coal was used mainly in
the iron industry. But South
Wales coal was of such high
quality that it became popular
all over the world.
• By the middle of the 1800s
two major developments in
transport provided a great
boost to the industry.
• In the early 1800s canals were
used to transport coal from
the valleys down to the dock. • Look at the map of
• But when rail replaced canals South Wales and
the industry really took off. notice how the river
valleys naturally
• Railways from the Rhondda provided routes down
valley and other coal-mining to the coast.
valleys ran fairly short
distances down to the booming • By 1870, 50% of the
docks at Cardiff, Newport and coal was being
Swansea. exported overseas.
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• A rail network was built throughout Britain and
Europe - the steam trains ran on coal and south
Wales coal was in much demand.
• The rail network made it easier to transport coal
to the rest of Britain. Railways in far away
British colonies such as India and in Africa used
coal from Wales.
• Ships switched from sail to steam power. As
early as 1851 the British navy decided that
Welsh coal was the best coal for its ships. Navies
and merchant ships around the world used coal
from south Wales.
• The basic physical geography of south Wales had
given the region a great advantage over other
coal-producing areas. The river valleys gave
transport routes and the steep valleys made it
easy to mine down to the coal.
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Why was there a population explosion in
the valleys?
• Coal mining depended on hard, physical labour.
• The industry was hungry for workers.
• The boom in the south Wales coal industry
attracted people to move to the area from the
rural parts of Wales, but also in great numbers
from Ireland, Scotland and England. The south
Wales coalfield became a "melting pot" of
different cultures and people.
• The Rhondda valleys became the centre of the
coal industry.
• In 1860 they had a population of around 3,000
people.
• This had jumped to 160,000 by 1910.
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Why was there a population explosion in
the valleys?
• The mining valleys developed their own unique culture.
• Strong communities grew up with people sharing the
hardships that mine work brought.
• By and large the coal companies did little to help their
workers.
• There were frequent disputes over pay and conditions.
• The miners formed unions to try and look after their
interests and improve their pay and conditions.
• The mining communities of the south Wales valleys
became famous for their strength, and for their choirs,
chapels, clubs and rugby teams!
• With the colliery on the valley floor, terraced housing
was built close by for the workers. The shape of the
valley meant that there was little flat land and the
houses had to fit in where they could.
12
Coal was important to industry and very
important to South Wales
• A government report said in 1919 that: "The
prosperity of south Wales is entirely dependent
on the export trade in coal."
• The industry relied on exporting 70% of its
production.
• The whole area, mining settlements and the
docks, depended on coal.
• But demand for coal was falling and there were
few other industries in south Wales.
• Iron and steel making, and the manufacture of
other metals, were also in decline because other
countries had developed their own industries.
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What happened next …
• The 1920s and 1930s were decades of economic
depression and poverty in the coalfields.
• There were long strikes and bitter disputes between the
company owners and the miners. The companies wanted
to keep up their profits but often at the expense of
miners' wages and jobs.
• In 1934 unemployment rates of 60% were recorded in
parts of the south Wales coalfield.
• People started to move away.
• Between 1931 and 1939, 160,000 people migrated from
south Wales to look for work in the new industries being
developed in other parts of Britain.
• To modernise the industry, machines were needed
instead of manual workers. Many of the coal seams in
south Wales weren't suited to the use of modern mining
machinery. 14
Why were these reasons likely to lead
to a decline in the coal industry?
• New light industries
• Ships
• Coal seams
• Transport
• Other countries
• Politics
• Lack of government support
• Coal for electricity
• How people warmed their homes 15
What was the impact of mine closures?
• At its peak nearly 300,000 miners had been employed in
the coal industry. In 1945 there were 125,000 miners
working in 135 pits in south Wales. By the early 1980s
that had shrunk to 22,000, and by the early 1990s to
below 1,000.
• Whole communities were devastated when their pit
closed. Families lost their income and without the miners'
wages, shops and businesses lost trade.
• People moved away to look for work, and those who
stayed found it hard to find a decent job.
• Ever since the 1930s the government has been trying to
attract new industry to the valleys.
• The Welsh Development Agency continues this work
today. But the valleys offer few attractions as a location
for modern factories.
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What was the impact of mine closures?
• New companies setting up in Wales over the last
20 years or so have chosen locations near the
M4, rather than in the narrow, built-up former
mining settlements such as the Rhondda valley.
• Today, the visible signs of the coal industry have
largely been removed. Collieries have been
replaced by supermarkets and small industrial
units; the old slag heaps of waste rocks have
been landscaped and planted with grass and
trees.
• But the scars on the community are slow to heal,
and most former mining communities face a
range of social and economic problems. 17
How does this apply to South Wales?
Decline of inner
city factories
New industries
go elsewhere The rich
move out
Cycle of
More decline Deprivation
Crime moves in Empty buildings
Local authorities Poorest left behind
do not invest Social problems
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Of these indicator, which do you
suppose will have changed since mining
lost its importance? Why?
• GDP per capita?
• Standard of living?
• Life expectancy?
• Crime?
• Educational achievement?
• General health?
• Environmental quality?
19
What has the government/EU tried to
do about it? The multiplier
effect?
• Having a declining area is a liability for
governments – unemployment pay, shops etc not
paying much tax, factories/offices empty so no
rates.
• So they try to improve things by investing in
infrastructure (roads, shopping centres,
upgrading houses), in grants to incoming
business, by waiving rates during the start-up
time etc. Improving the infrastructure also
supplies jobs to the local, who then pay tax – and
they have money to spend – the multiplier effect
• By making sure the area works well, investors
want to come in as it is a nice place to be.
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How did this work in South Wales?
• The footloose high tech firms hung around the
end of M4 motorway – near to Bristol
(university) and close to the good road/rail
network to London.
• They did not want to try and squash themselves
into the narrow valleys of the old coal fields,
where transport was poor and land scarce.
• But some small light industrial plants have taken
root in the valleys.
• However the Welsh Development Board, have
encourages tourism – science museums and
working mine exhibition etc and Swansea and
Cardiff have been made more attractive to
visitors.
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Homework
• You have 2 exam questions – one from each Unit we have
done this term
• One is on production and the other is on development
• I do NOT want you to do them as if they were an exam –
I want you to use your notes, the PowerPoints and the
textbooks to get as good answers as you can.
• Edexcel are not the most clear designers of exam
questions, so I have written some extra hints and tips
• For example in one section of 3 parts, the first and the
last refer to a diagram precisely – the middle one does
not – and you couldn’t answer it if you tried to get it
from the diagram, but the way it is worded, it is not that
clear that you can use other ideas.
• Count the marks – 6 marks = 3+ ideas & explanation & link
to egs
• If you asked for 2 things and are offered 4 marks, you
MUST explain.
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